A North Dakota trade delegation has agreed to sell 5,000 metric tons of peas to Cuba, and Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson hopes the country will strike another deal to buy five times that amount.

The sale of yellow and green peas is worth $1 million to North Dakota, and about $500,000 to pea producers themselves, said Eric Bartsch, director of the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Council.

"Any time you have a sale … it's always an impact to North Dakota. It's moving the product," Bartsch said Wednesday during a telephone conference call from Havana. "We have a lot of product out there, so we're going to be continually needing sales like this to move our product."

Johnson, Bartsch and Greg Johnson, owner of Premier Pulses International Inc. of Minot, are in Cuba this week to explore pea sales. The country, which has a centralized system for buying food, has bought $5.5 million worth of North Dakota dry peas and beans in the last five years.

Selling North Dakota peas to the communist island country is made tougher because of U.S. trade restrictions, and a significant difference in railroad shipping rates. Johnson said rail costs are $26 per metric ton higher than those faced by pea growers in Canada, who are the biggest competitors for Cuba sales.

U.S. trade rules require that sales to Cuba be in cash, and making the necessary currency arrangements adds cost, said Johnson, who supports abolishing the restrictions.

"That embargo issue - it's just lost money," he said. "It comes directly out of the pockets of North Dakota farmers … and it comes out of the pockets of the Cubans because they have to try to make that thing work."

North Dakota is the nation's leading producer of dry edible peas. In 2000, North Dakota had 66,000 acres of dry edible peas, according to the state Agricultural Statistics Service. This year, the state had 280,000 acres planted, out of 480,000 acres nationwide. Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon also produce dry edible peas, the service said.

Bartsch said North Dakota produces about 123,000 metric tons of yellow peas annually, and 185,000 metric tons of green peas. Yellow peas, which are less expensive, are more popular with Cuban buyers.

The 5,000 metric tons "is a fairly large shipment for North Dakota processors," Bartsch said. "We've never had the production like we've had this year before, so as our acres increase, these are going to start becoming more of a normal-sized shipment."